I won't taser you; scouts honor

<nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" "> Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More </nyt_headline> Todd Krainin for The New York Times
Explorers ready to enter a building taken by terrorists, in an exercise. More Photos >

<nyt_byline version="1.0" type=" "> By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
</nyt_byline> Published: May 13, 2009
<!--NYT_INLINE_IMAGE_POSITION1 --> IMPERIAL, Calif. — Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor. Skip to next paragraphMultimedia

<!--Article Comments Include--> Enlarge This Image Todd Krainin for The New York Times
In a training exercise run by Border Patrol agents, Explorer scouts from Visalia, Calif., prepare to storm a “hijacked” bus. More Photos »

The New York Times
Imperial County relies on the local criminal justice system. More Photos >

<script type="text/JavaScript" language="JavaScript">if (acm.rc) acm.rc.write();</script> The responding officers — eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 — face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots — BAM! BAM! — fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.
“United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!” screams one in a voice cracking with adolescent determination as the suspect is subdued.
It is all quite a step up from the square knot.
The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.
“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”
The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.
“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Border Patrol agent explained. “I guarantee that he’ll shut up.”